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1.8.3-Columbina
Brick!Club 1.8.3 Javert Satisfied THIS ENDED UP KIND OF BEING MOSTLY ABOUT MYSELF and I’m really sorry for that, for reals, I’m not sure there’s any legit meta under this cut, I think it’s mostly just me projecting issues onto Javert, so uh. Be warned, I guess? Y’ALL ARE STILL IN COURT AT 12:30AM? JESUS, ARRAS, GO TO BED. Seriously though, I’m curious if this was normal because just one hour ago I was reading some article in the newspaper about some expert saying that our irregular sleep patterns are ruining our lives or whatever, and if people were still at work at TWELVE-THIRTY IN THE MORNING back in the day, I think we have nothing to worry about today. Bless the DA for still insisting they should convict Champmathieu. In my very limited experience, Crown Prosecutors (the Australian version of district attorneys, basically) are simple creatures, as so many government employees are, so this passage really speaks to me. (Sorry not sorry for using these court chapters to bitch/gossip about Australian law practitioners.) Then Madeleine basically gets chased down because of a couple of bits of bad luck - the district attorney was “bent on having a Jean Valjean”, or in other words, was too proud to lose the case, the President has unhappy with Valjean’s word choices. *deletes entire mini-rant about Hart and Dworkin and judges as law-makers because I’m too lazy to doublecheck what I’m saying is actually correct* Anyway, the point that Hugo’s making about the arbitrariness of the judicial system is entirely valid, but it’s also inevitable, as long as the judiciary is run by human beings. It would be great if we could staff every court with a hundred Valjeans although lbh no one would ever get convicted ever. I really love that Javert was just getting out of bed, idk, it’s that human touch, I guess? Who knows, but also how just getting out of bed was he, was he still in a nightshirt, inquiring minds want to know etc. I would like to be able to say things about all the description of Javert’s fastidiousness of dress, but I honestly cannot. I can only make incoherent barely human noises. (I still fling the book across the room when I get to the leather stock, every. damn. time. NOPE NOPE NOPE JUST LEAVE ME HERE TO DIE.) (Don’t read this book in your early teenage years or you’ll find it has a lot to answer for when you grow up.) The satisfaction of at last getting hold of Jean Valjean caused all that was in his soul to appear in his countenance. The depths having been stirred up, mounted to the surface. The humiliation of having, in some slight degree, lost the scent, and of having indulged, for a few moments, in an error with regard to Champmathieu, was effaced by pride at having so well and accurately divined in the first place, and of having for so long cherished a just instinct. Javert’s content shone forth in his sovereign attitude. The deformity of triumph overspread that narrow brow. All the demonstrations of horror which a satisfied face can afford were there. AND TODAY ON PASSAGES THAT HIT WAY TOO CLOSE TO HOME. I am terrible with pride, there is so much in life that I miss out because of it, and when I make a mistake I burn with shame and I blame the person who pointed it out and end up despising them and there is no victory, nothing in the world, that makes me happier than finding out I was right all along and THIS IS SUPER UNHEALTHY AND A REAL PROBLEM FOR ME. So this passage, on the one hand it gives me that same thrill vicariously, I am right there with Javert in this moment of triumph but on the other hand, it terrifies me because the text is explicitly telling me that YO THIS ISN’T GOOD MATE at the same time as it’s giving me this thrill and it snaps me back to myself and then my heart breaks for Javert because I know how easy it would be to become that, how tempting it is to give in to that thrill and I want Javert to be strong enough not to, possibly just so I can believe that I can be strong enough not to because HI MY NAME’S COLUMBINA AND I MAKE EVERYTHING ABOUT MYSELF. Without putting the thing clearly to himself, Unlike Valjean, Javert doesn’t take the time to think through and examine his feelings, to think about why this is so important to him, he has the convenient excuse of Because Justice, he doesn’t seem to stop and think about all the good Madeleine does, it’s, I think, in this instance, not necessarily about justice but about being right, about winning, it’s that gut feeling telling you someone needs to be punished and put in their place and obviously for Javert, if someone needs to put in their place it means they’ve stepped out of it, which means rebellion, and Lord Almighty has Valjean ever stepped out of his place - although that might be crossing the line of imposing my own feelings on a character. Because this paragraph again, it’s exactly how I felt as a teenager in my Mean Girl moments, which I try not to talk about in fandom because everyone just ends up hating on me and sending me nasty messages, and this post contains enough admissions to being a terrible person already. Which is why I deleted a paragraph about the ways in which I sometimes envy Javert. Either way, bearing in mind that in public I try not to cross that line, but in my own thoughts I’m so far past that line it would take me years to ever try to find it again, this line is a fair kick in the gut: Without himself suspecting the fact, Javert in his formidable happiness was to be pitied, as is every ignorant man who triumphs. Because it’s true and because I hate being pitied and if anyone tried to tell me this about myself in real life, I would glare at them and push them away, but with the distance of fiction and time and my respect for Hugo, I have to listen and I have to face it and I don’t want to and it hurts. Commentary Pilferingapples …IS THIS RELATED TO YOUR FANTINE FEELS because I CANNOT be the only one seeing a line between Javert and Fantine here, can I? I think there’s a whole Thing with Pride going on through this book- unsurprisingly, since Hugo pretty well spelled it out for us early on as The Stronghold of Evil DUHN DUN DUNNNNN. And yet, isn’t there a contradiction there? Isn’t pride in a hob well done, or pride in a sense of duty, a Good Thing, even when being hideous? …This is probably getting all very Christian Theology Waters, and I only have a kickboard, so I’ll go back to shore on this. PRIDE THOUGH. Columbina (reply to Pilferingapples) PRETTY MUCH YES, I HAVE A LOT OF FEELINGS ABOUT SOCIAL RULES AND PRIDE. But for this, Imma throw it over to C.S. Lewis because a lot of my thoughts about pride are pretty much lifted from him anyway and every time I read “The Great Sin” it’s like being hit by a lightening bolt all over again. (Is that because it’s that good or because I’m an idiot who manages to forget it all between rereads who knows) But anyway, he argues that Pride-as-a-sin means competitive pride, so, not pride in a job well done, but pride in having done it better than anyone else could and for duty, “the pleasure lies in … the fact that you have pleased someone you wanted … to please. The trouble begins when you pass from thinking ‘I have pleased him; all is well,’ to thinking ‘What fine person I must have been to have done it.’” (That’s technically directed to the saved soul to whom Christ says “Well done” but you know, it works for duty.) That quote comes from a passage on the pleasure in being praised, which he says is not pride: “The vain person wants praise, applause, admiration, too much and is always angling for it. It is a fault, but a child-like and even (in an odd way) a humble fault. It shows that you are not yet completely contented with your own admiration. You value other people enough to want them to look at you.” And then that being proud of X (your father, school, etc) would be better described as “having a warmhearted affection for”, unless you’re talking about someone who gives themselves airs because of who their father was or where they went to school. Which remains the best explanation for those different kinds of pride I’ve seen, but if anyone has anything they like better, please point this way?